The Canadian dream?

• Practical nurses worried about investments in programme designed to take them to the North American country

Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter

HUNDRED OF Jamaican men and women gave up their jobs and took out loans for a chance to live the Canadian dream.

Now, they fear that their hopes of living and working in the North American country have become a nightmare.

The Canadian-license practical nursing programme and the shorter personal-care attendant course seemed a God-send, as they offered a legitimate way of escape from the hand-to-mouth hardships in Jamaica to a developed First-World country.

However, the lengthy delays in completing the programme and the chasm between landing a job and actually flying to Canada is worrying many of the practical nurses in training.

According to tales told by the students, they were shown the mountain peaks of a good programme, but the valleys - the lengthy delays - were not revealed.

Camille Longmore is one of them. She is a licensed practical nursing student at the Pre-University School campus in Montego Bay. She paid $270,000 for tuition and $1,500 Canadian dollars for "immigration".

new immigration rules

However, Professor Michael Patterson, spokesperson, Marmicmon Integrated Marketing and Communi-cations, told The Gleaner that the $1,500 in Canadian currency is for "bringing the employers to Jamaica". The money, he explained, pays for accommodation and airfare for the employers who meet and interview the students at a job fair, and offer jobs to those who do well. "We recognise the sacrifices that people have made. It is not that the process is not working, (but) I understand their frustration," he added. Patterson explained that new immigration rules have made it harder for employers in Canada to justify that they legiti-mately cannot find a Canadian citizen or resident to fill the post they are offering to the practical nurses from Jamaica.

"Nobody can push the federal government to go faster than it is," he said.

Longmore said she has been at home since December, but is thankful that she did not quit her job like some of her batch mates. "People took out loans (to pay the tuition) and some even quit their jobs," she said.

Longmore continued: "We were told that we would be given immigrant status at the end of the course. Mormicmon came in and said, 'No, that's rubbish'."

Longmore is tired of waiting and she wants a full refund. "I have no more interest in it. I thought it was legit, now I think it is a scam," she said. Another student from the Pre-University Kingston campus, who also requested anonymity, likened the programme to a failed investment scheme.

But, Dr Ronald Robinson, executive director of the Pre-University School, is confident that all the students who complete the programme will eventually be placed in a job in Canada, but he could not say how long that process would take.

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Yolanda Gentles, also from the Pre-University's MoBay campus, complained that the goalpost for completion of the course keeps on moving. "It started in March 2009 and should have ended in 15 months, but it was extended to 18 months," she said.

It is now 26 months after she started, and Gentles is still in the programme. "They forced a lot of us to resign our jobs. I was one of them," she said.

One student was offered a part-time job, but could not take it up as she was told the course was a full-time programme.

Gentles did not take a loan, but the course has depleted her personal funds. She has a young son. "I have to now rely on my parents, my mother has him and his father supports him. He can't even live with me," she said.

Octavina Brown-Cole, who completed the personal-care attendant course at the Pre-University's Kingston campus, heaped praises on the programme. She said of the 53 students who completed the course, only 16 did not land a job offer at the fair. "Plans are afoot to have them gainfully employed," said Brown-Cole.

She added: "I'm satisfied with the progress we are making."

*Name changed to protect identity.